Carcanet Case Study Fran Baker, John Rylands University Library University of Manchester SPRUCE...

Carcanet Case StudyCarcanet Case Study

Fran Baker, John Rylands University Library University of Manchester

SPRUCE event19 January 2012

The John Rylands University Library: Special Collections

JRUL & Digital Preservation

• Paradigm and Cairo Projects (junior partner)• Digital Preservation Steering Group• Digital Preservation Strategy • Implementation Plan• Theory into practice: JISC funding for

Carcanet Email Case Study

Images © Carcanet Press, reproduced by kind permission of Carcanet Press

Carcanet Press Archive

• Book files: authors’ manuscripts, annotated proofs, jacket designs, contracts, author questionnaires.

• Correspondence files: authors, translators, editors, publishers, designers, friends etc etc.

Aims of project

• To acquire and preserve the Carcanet Press Email Archive, for a year in the first instance.

• To use this archive as a testbed to establish good practice for acquiring and preserving similar born-digital archive material in the future.

• To produce guidelines and training materials in order that knowledge and expertise are retained.

• To share experiences and disseminate findings.

WP 1: Establish digital preservation ‘lab’

• Standalone quarantine PC for initial processing

• Networked workbench PC equipped with relevant software

• Secure network drive

WP 2: Survey and transfer of digital archive material

• Records survey: 2 email directories (Microsoft Outlook 2007)

• Documentation: deposit agreement; transfer list

• Encrypted portable hard drive

• Fixity checks

• Pre-acquisition appraisal

WP 3: Quarantine processing

• ‘Health check’: fixity and virus checking

• Secure deletion of selected folders (certificate of disposal)

• Audit trail

WP 4: Validation, metadata creation & extraction

• Working copy in dummy Outlook account (experiment with PeDALS email extractor)

• Accession record

• Descriptive metadata

• Curatorial ‘significant properties’

• Technical metadata

• Attachments: extraction and validation

• Processing plans

WP 5: Packaging and ingest

• Packaging tools

• Submission Information Package → Archival Information Package

• Fedora repository software: programme of fixity checks and techwatch

WP 6: Preservation planning

• Significant properties

• Long-term preservation formats for email (likely to be XML)

• Migration tools (PeDALS, CERP parser)

• PLATO?

WP 7: Training and dissemination

• In-house training manual and guidelines for curatorial and technical staff

• Training sessions

• Dissemination/sharing outcomes and experiences via relevant publications, listserves etc